Keep on Truckin'

As the mother of two boys, trucks are a BIG part of my everyday life. The love affair started very early with my first son. And although my youngest is only 13 months-old, his eyes light up when the garbage trucks vroom by or when we stroll by a backhoe at a construction site. So I am sure truck themes will appear frequently on this blog, but here is the first...

BOOKS: We have a few recent favorites, but really anything that features a truck of any sort is a big hit. We have a serious admiration for all Richard Scarry books, so Cars and Trucks and Things That Go gets some reading time every week. Others at the top of our current book stack include Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle, Dig Dig Digging by Margaret Mayo, I Love Trucks by Philemon Sturges, Trucks by Anne Rockwell, and Trucks by Fiona Watt.

ACTIVITIES:

1. Painting Tracks -- We tried this for the first time one rainy day, and it has been a favorite painting activity ever since. All you need is to spread out paper, get the tempera paint ready, and let the kids skip the paint brush and use a small toy truck or car for painting. We pour the paint into an old rectangular baby food container and then dip the toy truck in and then paint onto paper. My preschooler always gets excited to make "roads" on the paper. And different trucks/cars make different tracks, which can extend this activity for a while. My son's favorites are a steam roller and a monster truck.

2. Truck Wash -- After the messy painting, let the kids wash the trucks in the sink, a tub, plastic tupperware, etc. The fun continues as they wash up, and you can ensure that everything is clean so that the kids can use those toy trucks later on.